


Heavy Metal And (Not) Drowning

by GothMoth



Series: May's Phantastical Callings [7]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Minor Injuries, threat of drowning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-05-28 14:37:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19396180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: Due to an accident, three members of the Fenton family find themselves deep underwater. With only two air tanks.





	Heavy Metal And (Not) Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Minor injury, threat of drowning, broken bone, mild impalement.

The Fenton parents are rapidly pushing buttons in hopes of correcting the malfunction, neither of them caring to reprimand Danny for swearing, “oh shit!”. 

Maddie glares at Danny to make her point clear as Danny shoves oxygen tanks at her and Jack. Rolling his eyes as he runs back to grab his own, but he doesn’t make it that far as the Fenton submarine explodes. 

Instinctively Danny activates his intangibility and spins to grab on to his parents, mentally berating himself for ever leaving their side. Hundred and twenty feet underwater and inside some shipwreck relic thing, is no place for him to be letting his guard down. But his hands grasp on to nothing as he sees that they’ve been blown a good ten feet away. Clueing in that the only reason he hasn’t be blown far away from the wreck is his intangibility, thinking quick he looks around for an air tank. Both to cover his own ass or to give to his parents if they need a spare, since he doesn’t actually need it. Groaning as he spots the definitely destroyed third tank, no less than three large puncture wounds in it. 

He makes a show of holding his breath, as he drops his intangibility and starts swimming over to his parents. Something tells him that they probably can’t see him, even if it’s still daylight out. 

Meanwhile, Maddie and Jack had managed to get their tank masks on seconds after the explosion. As they’re looking around panicked for their son, Maddie realises her leg hurts like hell. Snapping her head down, she can clearly see a rather large chunk of sharp metal jutting out of her thigh. Forcefully slowing her breathing as she uses her hands to put pressure on her leg. Jack notices but she shakes her head at him, mouthing for him to keep looking for their son. Both of whom are hoping that he managed to get to the third tank.

Maddie can tell somethings wrong as Jack starts aggressively swimming away from her and towards where the sub was. Looking in that direction she sees why as Danny starts coming into view, without any mask or tank. 

Danny only pretends to breathe as his dad forcefully but gently sticks the mask over his face, not wanting to deplete the tank on someone who doesn’t actually need the air. Only giving his dad a thumbs up when he can see his dad clearly needs it back, so that he doesn’t look suspicious. 

Danny’s not too surprised at being a faster swimmer than his dad but Jack’s pace feels almost agonisingly slow, as they get back to Maddie. Danny really wants to focus on his mom’s injured leg but Jack pushes the air mask at him again. 

Pretend breathing again, as he inspects his mom’s leg. Cringing at her as he pushes the mask back at his dad. Danny yanks off his shirt, knowing full well that his parents can’t easily tear up their suits to make a tourniquet. He’s a bit glad for their poor night vision, so they can’t see all the scarring on his chest, and he can tell the sun must be starting to set as it’s clearly becoming darker. 

He knows full well he’s getting some quizzical looks from his parents as he expertly crafts a damn good t-shirt tourniquet. Danny can’t help but smirk, thoroughly impressed with his handy work but jerks a bit startled as Maddie slips her mask over his face. It takes a fair bit self-restraint to keep himself from the knee jerk reaction of fending off the “attack”. Something tells him his mild startled panic look actually makes his mom feel better though. 

After handing it back to her, the three start looking around for the quickest route out of the underwater relic. They couldn’t risk anything with sharp edges around the tanks and Jack wasn’t exactly a small man. While Danny could easily blast or physically tear a hole in this thing, no way he can do that with his parents near. Plus who knows how stable this thing is and in such a small space blasting anything was a pretty bad idea. He knows his dad couldn’t tear out a hole and Danny, by human logic and standards, should be far weaker than his dad. So he is stuck looking for a hole, in between pretend breathing and glancing as covertly as possible at his mom’s injuries. 

Jack’s feeling increasingly concerned as he’s sure it’s been at least four minutes and his son still hasn’t made one move to request for some air, from either of them. Maddie is clearly frustrated with, what he hopes is just, Danny’s tough guy act; as she shoves her mask at him. Both them feel relieved that he takes it readily but Jack only feels more confused at how his son doesn’t even seem to be gasping or breathing rapidly. After holding his breath for so long, he really really should be. 

Jack’s only more concerned as Danny couldn’t have been wearing the mask for more than two minutes, before handing it back to Maddie and continuing to look around. Looking to Maddie’s he can tell she’s noticed the oddness too. The two mutually agreeing to see just how long he takes to actually ask for air, unless of course, he looks like he really needs it. 

Maddie’s not sure whether to be impressed or deeply bothered by how her son looks like a man on a mission but also completely calm, like he’s just trying to figure out how to beat a video game level or get the amount of cheese on a pizza just right. It screams experience, as she watches him zip around in the water with ease and easily figuring out which things aren’t worth even checking out. He easily covers over triple the area her and Jack do. Not only that but she does notice that he keeps sneaking glances at them, like he’s checking to make sure they're ok. Which Maddie can at least understand in regards to herself but Danny’s the one without a tank and he’s just a kid. Yet somehow he’s the calmest one, it even seems like he’s done this before. 

Eventually, Jack and Maddie exchange both worried and confused looks as Jack mouths, “ten minutes”. Before they both glance back at their son, who’s acutely paying attention to their surroundings but not looking even slightly bothered by the lack of air. As they all move to the next section, hoping for better luck. 

Jack, spotting a hole he can just about get though and is clearly made of thinner material starts yanking on it. Quickly being joined by his son, as Maddie holds on to some piping close by. Both Danny and Jack can tell that her leg is starting to get to her, but everyone knows it’s not a good idea to take the metal out until they actually can patch it up more properly. 

Both boys smirk as the wreck gives way and the hole is easily opened far enough, Jack motions for his son to go out first. 

Danny’s not too keen on leaving his parents inside, there’s no way this hunk of junk is stable and he’d rather it come down on him than them. He could get out easily if need be and he’s not the injured one here. So he shakes his head before pointing at Maddie. Both them glare at him so he just motions his hands somewhat aggressively at her injured leg. 

Maddie pulls herself through while furrowing her eyebrows at Danny. Though Danny promptly decides that this was the right decision, as he has to quickly push his dad out after his mom, as the place creaks loudly before crumpling down. Promptly pinning his leg as he was more focused on getting his dad out of the way than phasing his leg through the rubble. Jack trying to push Danny out instead didn’t exactly make it any easier. Snapping his head around and glaring angrily at the large beam before shoving it off. “Fuck, ow”, muttering before quickly snapping his leg back the way it should be and hoping that his parents did not see his clearly broken leg. 

His parents rush up to him though Jack eyes the, definitely not light, beam questioningly. While Danny gives his mom shit for moving too much, by flicking his eyes between her leg and face. Maddie glares at his leg in return and tries to move to look at it but Danny waves her off and proves his point by kicking in the water with both his legs. It hurts like hell but he’s had way worse so he easily pulls off the stunt without so much as a grimace. 

Both the parents' frown but they join their son in slowly swimming at an upwards angle, dodging around different bits of debris and occasionally having to climb or swim back down. Danny can’t help but feel a bit annoyed at not being able to just phase through everything, heck! He doesn’t even need to slow his ascent. But he’d rather this and them be safe, and of all the places for their ride to explode, it had to be in the sea surrounded by metal and wood scrap. 

Danny knows his being stared at and mentally facepalms as he motions for the air tank. He knows it’s been damn well too long for any human but his parents have not noticed his bullshit happening right in front of them before. Like really, he’s turned invisible maybe a foot in front of them before. Heck! He did that before he even knew how to lie his ass off. 

Handing the mask back to his dad and trying to not make it look rushed, as he knows he’s the only one to spot the sharp-toothed large fish of some kind swimming towards them. Groaning as he knows his mom’s bleeding and the loud noise is probably what drew it near. 

Danny, intentionally trying to steer all of them away from the approaching predator. Which results in him, once again, feeling annoyed about being the fastest swimmer here and having to forcefully slow himself down. But also knowing damn well he doesn’t want to be too far from them, especially since it’s probably really hard for them to see at this point. 

Maddie is merely assuming that Danny’s barely visible paranoia and jerkier movements, is because he’s coming down off of adrenaline and shock. Still doesn’t explain the other weirdness though. Adrenaline can’t massively increase a persons lung capacity, really her teenage son should be going through more air than they are. He shouldn’t be this good in an emergency situation, even if they all live in Amity. She’d be even more confused at seeing her son baring his teeth, if she wasn’t busy being startled by a pretty darn big and clearly predatory fish, swimming towards her aggressively. 

Danny doesn’t care about seeming too strong as he decides he’s going to punch this fish bastard hard. Not full strength, of course, just more than enough to knock out most creatures. He just wants it to no longer be an issue and he doesn’t really know if just hurting it will be enough to drive it off. 

Maddie’s not really sure what in all a Fenton staff will do against a regular not ghost fish, though she doesn’t really care. But after wiping it out she never gets the chance to use it as her son punches it hard enough to send it sailing away from them. A mixture of mental shock and her getting ready to go on the attack makes Maddie sail backwards enough to slam the piece of metal into some rubble behind her.

Danny’s snaps his head back at the sound of his mothers' sharp hiss of pain. Quickly jetting over to her and seeing that she managed to get the bit of sharp metal lodged into some bits of a door and hinge. 

Jack gets himself over in time to catch Danny mutter, “oh come on”. Which instantly makes him think he’s hearing things but judging by his wife’s facial expression she heard that too. Which makes no sense as, one talking underwater is pretty well impossible, two there are no air bubbles coming out of Danny’s mouth, and three he should be unconscious from lack of air by now. 

Maddie tries to spin around to get some kind of explanation from him, though hardly expecting the truth; but that idea promptly gets shot down as shooting pain runs up her leg. Danny gapes up at her dumbfounded, seeing as she pretty well just intentionally hurt herself for no real reason. At least when he yanks on something impaling him, he has a damn reason; well that and freakishly fast ghost healing. When you heal from massive holes and stab wounds in only an hour or so, it makes far more sense to shrug that shit off. But his mom has no such ability, so Danny glares at her harder. 

Turning his head around to his dad, Danny points down at the piece of metal, stuck in both his mom’s leg and the debris. Which gets Jack to actually notice what the problem is, also making him pretty well stop giving a shit about his sons' impossible oddness. Injured and, apparently, stuck family; is more important. 

Jack frowns at how badly wedged in it is, because there’s really no way to get this out without cutting the metal which they don’t have th- Jack’s thought process gets cut off as Danny sighs defeatedly and straight up lifts the bits of debris off the chunk of metal. 

Maddie, free now, spins around wincing a bit as she does but ignores it in lue of mouthing “how”, at Danny. 

Danny flat out decides to play dumb and just pretend like absolutely nothing weird has happened. He has done nothing weird at all. Though he can tell that’s not going to fly as soon as he sets his face into a confused stare, as his dad crosses his arms at him. But Danny’s never been a quitter, so he intentionally shrugs awkwardly. 

Jack is currently pretty unimpressed with his son, yes whatever’s up with him probably saved his life and is saving theirs but, he doesn’t like it. Jack is certain there’s no way Danny doesn’t know what’s up with him, otherwise, he’d be freaking out over the lack of air. 

Maddie is also certain, and she’s pretty sure the only reason Danny was ever asking or accepting the oxygen was to be less suspicious. Maddie’s not sure whether she’s more sad or mad. Mad at him for lying or sad that he feels the need to go to such lengths to do so. 

Maddie frowns at him while Jack mouths, “thirty minutes”. And now Danny is actually confused, having no clue what his dad means by that. So he draws a question mark in the water. Both of them stare at him for a bit before Jack taps on his own air mask.

Danny can’t help but mentally and physically facepalm, for as good of a lair as he had become, he was clearly fucking it up right now. But at this point, there’s probably no use in asking for air, since yeah humans can’t go that long period. Rubbing his neck as he mouths “you counted” at them. But as his dad nods, Danny points forwards and up, making swimming motions. Because really, tanks don’t have limitless air; even Fenton tanks. 

Maddie’s fully aware that they really don’t know just how long it’ll take to get to the surface and that they really should get going. But between her leg and Danny’s oddness, she isn’t really thinking about that much. She will get her explanation and clearly, Danny can give it. Since he can talk underwater, somehow. Putting her hands on her hips but not jostling her leg as she mouths, “talk and swim”. 

Danny audibly groans and rubs at his neck as his dad taps on his own ears and points to Danny’s mouth. Being a talkative fellow is not very helpful for Danny right now. Heck, he’s usually more talkative in crisis situations or fights than he is regularly. And Danny really doesn’t want to take the risk that they’ll flat out refuse to swim or something if he doesn’t start explaining this crap. “Fine. Um, I've really only known about this for a few months. Figured it out in a swimming pool”. 

Jack and Maddie share a slightly startled look but swim after their son, hoping that he’ll just explain without prompting since neither of them can really talk; without wasting air or pretty well having to shout. Neither are happy Danny hid whatever this is but a few months isn’t so bad. Jack imagines he was probably freaked out originally and is kind of concerned over just how Danny figured this out. He really hopes it was something mundane like a breath-holding exercise. 

Maddie spins her hand at Danny as he and Jack push around some scraps, to clear a better path. Looking between both of them, “Er, don’t really have an explanation for how”. Of course, he actually does but he’d rather see what they come up with on their own before having to explain that even the half-dead don’t need air or can just breath in water. He’s not actually sure what one it is but that doesn’t really phase him. 

Maddie’s not sure if she really believes he doesn’t know the why or how. She knows he lies a lot and she doesn’t like just how good at it he is. But for now, she’ll let it slide, in lue of paying better attention to her surroundings since is pretty darn hard for her to tell what she’s even looking at. The suns definitely set and that’s not exactly good. She’s thankful for her warm and functionally water-proof jumpsuit, but that’s just another reason to worry about Danny; who has only got a pair of cargo pants on. She can’t help but think a bit bitterly that maybe he’s cold tolerant too or something. Just yet another secret and more lies.

Danny grins cockily as he spots a decent sized opening and jets over to it. He’ll admit he likes how winding through the water feels like flying a bit, be much easier with his ghostly tail though. Sticking his head out the hole only makes him smile wider, as it looks like that path up from here is totally clear. Though of course, they’ll still have to pace themselves and go at an angle. But, if there’s an emergency, his parents might not question him just swimming straight up as much as they would question him phasing through a bunch of scraps and then swimming up. 

Pulling his head back down, he clues in that his parents definitely can’t see him. As they look around worriedly, swimming back over to them as he points over his shoulder towards the hole. Judging by their slightly confused expressions, they can’t see the hole either. He’s glad neither of them calls him on seeing it as Jack grins at the hole. 

Jack goes through first this time, just in case there’s more fish around in clearly more open water. Though Danny is again the last one out, but quickly is swimming a bit ahead of them. All three of them continuously scan their surroundings as they ascend. 

Thankfully the rest of the trip is uneventful, however, Danny is not impressed when even he can’t see any land in sight. But now he’s officially thankful for his mom’s over-preparedness as she waves around a tracking device. He’s also glad most of their stuff is water-proof. 

Unfortunately, though, he can tell they’re both pretty tired. Even if it’s clear they’re relieved to be able to take off their oxygen masks. Plus it’s kind of hard not to snicker at the sight of his dad treading water. 

Maddie points a finger at her son, “when we get home, I want a scan of your chest”. She can read the veiled panic on his face and it’s clear to her he wants to refuse, so she glares to make it clear he’s getting a scan. Not only does she want to figure out how but more so make sure her son’s healthy. Who knows what’s up with his lungs, maybe he’s got some kind of mutation. Oddly helpful and concerning but considering everything in their house, she wouldn’t be to surprised. 

Danny is officially not looking forward to home, he’s just hoping that whatever scan cannot pick up on his core. But he doesn’t really get to dwell on that as land quickly comes into sight. “Huh, well I guess we weren’t that far off”, while it’s nice to get out of the water, he knows he’s still in shit. But he’s not about to let that stop him from helping his mother along with the whole swimming thing. And clearly, her displeasure with him doesn’t stop her from readily accepting being more or less carried. Technically Danny could carry both of them with ease but that would just make him look more suspicious. Especially since there’s no way his dad doesn’t weigh a lot, his mom, on the other hand, is relatively light. 

Jack’s the first to get out of the water and he helps Danny lift Maddie out, before sitting on the ground. Danny’s the only one of them that doesn’t seem rather wiped out. As both of them watch Danny gingerly go about unwrapping the soaking wet t-shirt from Maddie’s leg. 

Jack heaves himself up to go get the medical kit from the RV while Danny looks over his mom’s leg. “Well, at least it didn’t hit bone or anything major. Just muscle damage from the looks of it”, Maddie just nods a bit exhausted as Jack starts cleaning the wound. 

Wrapping it up with proper bandaging before the boys help her into the RV, leaving the metal in for the hospital to deal with. 

Everyone’s glad the hospital visit doesn’t take long and there was indeed no major damage. Though they all go home with clear instructions for Maddie to keep off her feet as much as possible. And with plenty of comments on how they got pretty lucky, though Danny knows it wasn’t really luck. He’d have been pretty well fucked if he was a regular human, probably anyways. And that would have definitely fucked over his parents too. Shivering a bit as he pushes that thought out of his head, as he grabs something to eat. 

Jack and Maddie can’t help but smile at him as he flat out stuffs an entire croissant in his mouth. Maddie feels a bit better just at seeing the more normal behaviour from him but she still doesn’t like how he’s acting so normal. Like the whole ordeal didn’t phase him at all, heck he seemed more bothered about being called out on his impossible oddness. Which reminds her, looking to her husband before nodding her head at the lab. 

Jack helps her up as she talks, “now that you’ve sufficiently stuffed your face, lab?”. Danny looks at her leg a bit judgingly, as she really should just be resting but he knows well enough that she’s “worked” or “researched” while injured before. Plus he really doesn’t have much of a place to be judging, does he? Groaning a bit as he heads down to the lab, not even remotely looking forward to this. 

Thankfully, his parent select to use a basically normal scanner since Danny tends to make ghost related stuff do weird things or give, what they think is, false results. Meaning that this scanner doesn’t pick up on Danny’s core. Heck, it doesn’t show anything abnormal at all. Which is clearly just confusing his parents.

“Well, Sweetie. You’re perfectly normal, which in this case, is actually not normal”. Jack almost excitedly grabs a bowl and fills it with water, shoving it at Danny. “Maybe this will get different results?!”, Danny seriously hopes not but humours his dad. Because really if he says no, he’ll just be putting it off and probably upsetting his parents. 

Talking with his face in the water to prove that he’s not just pretending, “I’m pretty sure none of us are actually normal but I think we’re all better for it, honestly”. 

Jack and Maddie can’t help but agree even if the scan results are still confusingly completely normal. Both rather stumped for any explanation other than him being affected by something ghostly. “Well son, there’s no obvious reason for this. So let’s chalk this up to your unusual ecto-contamination”. Maddie nods, “can’t really see any other explanation at this point”. Shaking her head at Danny, who doesn’t even look bothered, “I don’t like that our stuff has changed you. Especially finding out that it’s changed you more than we already knew”. 

Danny rubs at his neck sheepishly, because they really had no idea just how much he’d changed, “I’m fine though. Odd but fine”. Pretending to yawn to get out of this situation, which promptly causes both his parents to genuinely yawn. Chuckling, “well ok, maybe we should all just rest at this point”. 

Danny’s glad neither of them complain as he heads off to bed. Curling up, he can’t help but pat at his chest, where his core is, affectionately. 

**End.**


End file.
